Dice, Camera, Action!: A Barovian Toy Story
by Wramysis
Summary: My take on Simon's backstory, and the experiences he had as a puppet before meeting the Waffle Crew.


This fic was written for the 'Wafflefam Writing Club' prompt: 'Stars'. Inspired by Disney's Pinocchio and the song, "When You Wish Upon a Star", as well as Pixar's "Toy Story"...but with a Barovian twist. This is my own take on Simon version 1's origins (given the background we learned about version 2 and Duchess Dilisnya's intentions in episode 56).

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_All children, whether made of flesh or wood, are born with the secret knowledge of fairy godmothers. They know that someone out there is lovingly watching over them, and they clutch to that truth as they would a soft, protective blanket. Best of all, on the day that the fairy comes to visit, the child will be blessed by wonderful gifts._

When Simon first opened his eyes and saw a large round woman looking down at him, he thought it must be his godmother. Before that moment, although he had a vague awareness of himself and his surroundings, he had not realized that his small wooden body could move.

"He's perfect," said the woman delightedly to the toymaker who had carved him. "You made the modifications I asked for?"

"Y-yes," the old man said hesitantly. "Though I must say, your ladyship, that these additions seem most inappropriate for a child's toy."

"Oh-ho!" she laughed in a jolly fashion, dismissing his concern with a wave of her purple fan. "It is not for a child, good toymaker. It is a sort of prank, for a good friend of mine."

His godmother gave the man some coins, and suddenly Simon found himself placed inside a metal box. Before he could protest, the box was sealed, and he felt himself carried off a long distance. Although he thought he should be scared, he realized his godmother must be taking him to his new family. This was surely another one of her gifts to him.

When the movement finally stopped, Simon could feel his little heart race in anticipation. Who would open the box? He tried to imagine their face, when something inside his head suddenly whirled. His eyes began to glow red in the confined darkness, which was strange because he remembered that they had originally been painted white. Searching his inner workings, he realized that strange metal devices had been jammed into the sockets where his eyes had once been. They still allowed him to see, but now they were connected to something else foreign inside him.

Where a tongue should be, he now had a heavy metal tube. There were also small objects stuffed inside the tube, that could be released when he opened his mouth. There was something dire about those objects, and he clamped his jaw shut so that they wouldn't go off by accident. But that thing controlling his new eyes wanted him to open it. It showed him an image of a face, and told him he would have to shoot that person. It _demanded_ that he shoot that person. Simon didn't understand what was happening, but he knew that these feelings were not a part of him, and he focused all his willpower on resisting it.

He then heard voices, and the lid of the box finally lifted open. He suddenly lost control of his body to the foreign presence commanding him, which seemed eager and ready to fulfill its programmed purpose. But the face peering down at him was not that of the beautiful woman the eyes had been set on killing. It was a male elf, with dusky skin and black pits for eyes.

"It is a doll, my lord," said the elf, his voice sounding mildly disgusted. "I sense hidden workings inside it, no doubt trapped to be deadly to you."

A second face approached, and in his pale visage, Simon saw only sadness. The voice behind the eyes did not respond to this man either, and Simon felt the red glow fade in disappointment. "Calm yourself, Rahadin. I am clearly not its intended victim." The man pulled Simon free from the box and dropped him to the floor. Simon immediately climbed to his feet and sprinted behind a piece of furniture, poking his head out warily to see if they would come after him. The elf seemed alarmed, but the pale man settled calmly into a padded chair by the fireplace, not taking his eyes off Simon.

"The duchess could not stand that I loved Tatyana, and had you modified to kill her. But fate, in its cruel irony, has already stolen Tatyana from both of us, and now we find ourselves in these cursed new forms without a purpose."

Simon was relieved that the target of his evil red eyes was dead, but what did this man mean about a curse? What did he mean about being modified?

"If you wish to seek out a new purpose in these haunted halls, feel free to do so." Thus dismissed, the glowering elf pushed Simon out of his master's study, and he found himself alone inside the cold, dark castle.

Over time, Simon grew to understand what the man had meant about being cursed. The undead creatures that shambled down the corridors were not made for keeping company, so on the few occasions when the lord had living visitors, Simon would try to approach them. But the sight of his red eyes made them afraid, and when he forgot himself and opened his mouth to try to explain, sometimes a poisoned dart would pop out and strike someone in the neck. On occasion, the lord would quickly provide them with an antidote, but more often than not, he would do nothing. At first Simon wondered if the lord had simply not been aware or close enough to intervene, but he slowly came to realize that the lord noticed everything that happened in his castle. If someone wasn't saved, it was because the lord no longer had a use for them.

Simon worried about what would happen when the lord no longer had a use for _him_, either. Being an assassin was not the purpose Simon wished to find for himself. There was a yearning deep inside him for some form of acceptance; for someone to reassure him that he mattered. _This must be what it means to have a heart_, he realized. Along with the red eyes and metal tube, it was the third curse his fairy godmother had given him.

Then one day, the lord had a pair of guests Simon had never met before. He had been drawn to the sound of a child's laughter, something he had not heard since the days he sat on a shelf in the toymaker's shop. Simon peeked his head around a curtain, trying to get close enough to see them without being spotted. A man stood there with what was presumably his daughter, speaking to the lord of the castle. But she seemed to have a greater awareness than other humans Simon had seen; some kind of instinct that let her see with more than normal vision. She let go of her father's hand and rushed unerringly towards Simon, as if the curtain wasn't even there.

"Papa, look! Toy!"

Simon could see the pale lord frown down at him, and he could tell that this was a guest who the man did not want harmed. Simon nodded at him, trying to convey that he understood. The little girl wrapped her arms around him, startling him so that his mouth opened a small fraction, but he quickly clamped it shut.

"Put that down, Arabelle. It belongs to Lord Strahd."

The lord pursed his lips as he seemed to consider something. "It is actually not mine," he finally said. "I have no control over what it does, and I will not accept responsibility for it. But if your daughter so wishes, she is welcome to take it."

Thus began the happiest years Simon had ever known. At first the two were constantly in each other's company, having tea parties, catching butterflies, and riding atop her father's wagon as they voyaged to far off places. But as Arabelle grew older, she spent less and less time with him. Then one day, as the Vistani were putting away their things to break camp, Arabelle did not place him beside her atop the wagon. Instead, she asked if he would be okay sitting inside with the loaded crates and other packed belongings. He nodded obligingly. It wasn't until much later, when she stopped asking all together and her father simply rolled him up inside one of her favorite unicorn rugs, that he understood that she had outgrown him. Despondent, most days he didn't even bother coming out of the rolled up carpet. Her last request of him was that he stay in the back of the wagon, and that was what he did.

Then one day, he heard her father and several strange voices draw near. They spoke of rewards and treasures, and Arabelle's father seemed highly amused about something. When they unrolled the carpet he was in, Simon slowly sat up and opened his eyes. He had hoped that Arabelle would be with them, but it was only her father, a dirty creature in dark robes, a smiling woman in shining armor, and a thin man covered in leather and knives. The cheerful woman made a comment about sensing evil in him, and Simon turned his head around to glare at her. He looked at Arabelle's father to see if he would do anything, but the man simply affirmed what the stranger had said, calling him an "evil toy", and that he now belonged to them.

Simon would have nothing of it. He climbed off the wagon and ran through the camp, looking for Arabelle. When he finally found her hiding under a wagon with Tarokka cards spread around her, he almost didn't recognize her. He remembered hearing that normal humans aged, but he had been around undead for so long that he forgot how drastically time changed them. The girl seemed to not recognize him either, but he put his hand out to her, and she slowly took it.

"Aww, isn't that sweet," the stranger in armor said, coming up behind him. _Drat_, those strangers had followed him.

To his surprise, Arabelle suddenly smiled down at him, with a look that seemed to hint that she might remember him. "Do want to play a game?" she asked. "Can you help me find a pin?"

Simon nodded eagerly, happy to be given a task. Arabelle crawled out from under the wagon and led him towards the woods. Simon looked back and was pleased to see that the strangers appeared otherwise occupied. However, Arabelle seemed nervous. His suspicions were confirmed when she worriedly confided to him, "Someone is trying to kill me."

Suddenly on high alert for danger, Simon scanned the trees around them. During his years in the dark castle, he had come to discover that his red eyes could actually detect heat, allowing him to spot living creatures even in complete darkness. Unfortunately, it did nothing to help him find Arabelle's missing pin, and she was growing increasingly anxious.

"Wait... that music in the camp. That is a signal. No, I must tell my father not to do this." She grabbed Simon's hand and began running back to the tents. Activity in the camp had increased compared to when they had left it, and a boy Arabelle's age leaped out from a wagon to block their path.

"What's that?" the child challenged, pointing a finger at Simon.

"Isn't it a cool toy?" Arabelle said distractedly, trying to push her way past him. The boy glared at Simon suspiciously, then spat at him. Before Simon could stop himself, his mouth opened and a dart flew towards the child, striking him in the neck. He stumbled before falling to ground

Arabelle made a gasp of surprise and ran to the boy's side. Simon felt a rush of shame, for he had never revealed this dark side of himself to her. When she turned to look at him, Simon could see the flash of anger in her eyes, and drew back in fright.

"If I could curse you, I would!" she shouted at him. Simon didn't know what to do, so instinctively he fled into the woods. Things had been going so well! He had actually believed that Arabelle would remember and love him again. Now he had ruined that chance. She would never trust him again.

A short time later, Simon caught the orange glare of fire coming from the camp, which was much brighter than usual. He rushed back, finding the tents on fire and Vistani in a panic, hurriedly hitching up horses to the wagons. He heard the wail of Arabelle's father, and rushed in that direction, only to find the man clutching her lifeless form. _No!_ Had Simon's actions somehow killed her too?

No, she had warned him that someone wanted her dead. _It must be one of those strangers!_ Simon followed the footprints he knew to be theirs until they merged with the tracks of horses. He followed those as well, until they led back to a tower where he found a new trail that led back to the pale lord's castle. Each time their path changed, he knew that he had only just missed them. When he finally reached the castle, however, he was amazed to see beams of sunlight cresting over the mountains. He had never seen the sun before. It filled his heart with warmth, just like Arabelle's smile.

_But now Arabelle was gone_. He had never belonged to anyone else. Even though the lord of the castle had denied any claim to him, Simon might have returned there, if not for a strange certainty Simon felt that the man was also dead.

And then he remembered the words of Arabelle's father, who said that Simon now belonged to the strangers. He turned his gaze to the road, where he knew they had once again fled. He would catch up with them eventually. What would he do when he found them?

It took less time than he thought. The strangers had only one horse to share between them, and the ground was packed with snow. Simon would have had more trouble, but he took advantage of a passing owlbear and climbed onto its back, coaxing it in their direction with occasional offers of food. He knew now how to control his metal tongue, and cause it to shoot darts filled with sleep potion instead of poison. From his perch atop the owlbear, he shot at passing birds and small animals hiding in the brush, and the owlbear feasted on them gratefully. When he spotted the tracks leading to the partially collapsed cabin, he led the owlbear to it, then climbed onto the roof. There was a large hole where something had crashed through, from which Simon could see his targets huddled inside. It was too obvious an entrance, so Simon climbed into the chimney. It was only after he was almost halfway down that he realized there was a fire beneath him. He lost his grip and fell the rest of the way, crashing into the flames. He quickly rolled them out, and stared at the three creatures, realizing that they recognized him and were frightened. He didn't know what to do next.

A fourth figure appeared out of nowhere. The man moved his lips as if casting a spell, but Simon felt no effect. "You should totally be our friend," he said. Simon didn't know how to react, so he simply nodded, but the others instantly relaxed. The cheerful woman patted him on the head and draped a mantle over his body, snuffing out the last of the flames. "Any friend of Paultin's is a friend of mine," she grinned.

Over the next few days, Simon's presence continued to be welcomed by the fourth stranger and the cheerful woman, and begrudinginly tolerated by the others. Yet they seemed to frequently get into trouble, and Simon actually found ways to be useful to them. He was most surprised the day the fourth stranger, who the others called Paultin, cast the magic dome of safety while Simon was still inside it. It was the greatest show of trust that anyone had ever shown him, and he felt compelled to prove himself worthy.

At last, Simon had a purpose. He had a new family, and it was his job to help them. He was not a simple toy; he had been built for more important things. And he came to realize that the parts about him that he had thought were once curses, were in fact, gifts after all.

His red eyes might be scary to those who didn't know him, but he didn't have to worry about what others thought any more. His family accepted him. And those eyes would let him see danger in the darkness, and keep them safe.

His heavy metal tongue might not be able to speak words, but he didn't need words for his family to understand him. The tube was a weapon, and serious responsibility. His family trusted him with it, and he wouldn't let them down.

As for the heart that he had felt had been his greatest curse... well, it was a burden to be sure. But even if following it could sometimes lead to pain, it was worth that small price to feel the loving warmth of his mother's arms, or the burst of pride from his father's smile.

He didn't know what awaited them in this strange new world, but he would stand at his parents' side and they would face those dangers together. The love of this new family was all that Simon would ever need.


End file.
